Shelton’s return to JWCC lineup provides spark in conference victory over Danville

QUINCY — Jordan Shelton and the John Wood Community College men’s basketball team shook off whatever rust they may have had.

In Shelton’s first game of the year and the Trail Blazers’ first game in 21 days, Shelton scored 25 points and John Wood recorded its highest scoring game of the season in a 91-79 Mid-West Athletic Conference victory over Danville Area Community College on Saturday at JWCC’s Student Activity Center.

Shelton, a sophomore guard who was ineligible to play during the fall semester, went 6 of 11 from the field and 12 of 16 from the free-throw line in his season debut.

“I just wanted to play, man,” Shelton said.

Shelton also had six steals, dished out five assists and only turned the ball over once.

“I just gave it my all on the court,” Shelton said. “I’ve been working off the court, and I just wanted to show what I’ve been working on behind the scenes. That’s all it was.”

Trail Blazers coach Jonny Dahl enjoyed watching Shelton contribute so much to a victory.

“I was excited for him,” Dahl said. “He did enough to be able to get back, so it’s fun to see him on the floor and having fun.” 

Dahl, who played college basketball at three different schools including John Wood, knows how badly Shelton wanted to get back on the court.

“I went through that where I had to sit for a semester. It’s really hard,” Dahl said. “You test if you love basketball or not, test what kind of teammate you’re going to be. He went through some stretches where he had to mature and figure out stuff as a teammate. It was good for him, and it’s showing off now.”

It wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows for Shelton and the Trail Blazers on Saturday. The Trail Blazers found themselves trailing 32-28 after a Devan Larkin layup with 4:40 left in the first half. Following two empty Trailblazers possessions, Dahl called his second timeout.

“It all started in the timeout with Coach Dahl telling us to get stops,” Trail Blazers sophomore forward Jake Wallingford said. “Stops are what really make us go, and transition just flows with it.”

John Wood got that stop out of the timeout, and it was a Trail Blazers avalanche the rest of the first half. They scored on their next eight possessions, and they closed the half on a 15-1 run over the final 3:27 to take a 43-33 lead into halftime.

“We talked about it right before that. We got lucky,” Dahl said. “We had some breaks where the ball bounced our way on a loose ball that should have probably been a turnover, and we got a layup out of it. We talked about, ‘Hey, those are your breaks that you get. You don’t get many in basketball, so now we have to be solid.’ I think the guys did a really good job of doing the right stuff, having good spacing offensively, and defensively they started sitting down and having some teeth to them.”

The Jaguars made it a two-possession game eight different times in the second half and even got as close as 68-66 with 6:34 left, but each time, the Trail Blazers responded. Nikos Connaway drained a 3-pointer to push the lead back to 71-66 with 6:09 left, and after a Dredon Nunn free throw drew Danville within four 55 seconds later, the Jaguars never got any closer. The Trail Blazers ripped off the next nine points to stretch the lead to 13 at the 2:19 mark.

“I was really proud of how we responded to runs,” Dahl said. “There were multiple times like that where we showed more maturity that we had in the past. We hadn’t shown we can sit down, have a bad stretch, have a two-minute stretch where we don’t look good and figure it out. I’m really proud of them for figuring it out today.”

Wallingford, who had 21 points and 13 rebounds to notch his eighth double-double in the last 10 games, said this was the most complete performance the Trail Blazers (6-10) have put together this season.

“I’d say our top one, and it’s nice to start off the second half of the season that way coming out in a region game,” Wallingford said. “It’s nice when you can get a double-digit win at home to start off the new year.”

It was nice to have Shelton back, too.

“It’s really awesome,” Wallingford said. “Defense, offense, he can do a little bit of everything, so it’s nice to have ‘4’ back out there.”

And a great way to kickstart to the calendar year for the Trail Blazers.

“Yes sir, it was,” Shelton said.